


Kentucky

by Born In Captivity- Ineligible to Release (Jashasedai)



Series: Alternate Universe - Tame Racing Drivers [26]
Category: Motorcycling RPF, motogp - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe- Tame Racing Drivers, Doubles of Every Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-06 19:49:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11043123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jashasedai/pseuds/Born%20In%20Captivity-%20Ineligible%20to%20Release
Summary: A Tribute Fic for Nicky Hayden.Forza Nicky.1981-2017In an AU where a secret species is used as Racing Riders, some stories end too early.Nicky and his Racing Rider, Kentucky, were nearly impossible to tell apart.This story is the Tame AU version of May 17-22, 2017.





	Kentucky

**Author's Note:**

> This story is the Tame AU version of May 17-22, 2017.
> 
> Use Self Care.
> 
> This is part of the Tame Racing Drivers AU. Read the series summary.
> 
> Real People don't belong to me.
> 
> This story is fiction and is no reflection on anyone in it. The story does belong to me, as does the AU in which it is set.

**Kentucky**

  
Racers out of range of their matches cannot tell what is happening with their match. The door in their mind that connects them is not closed, but there is empty barren waste on the other side.

Racers in range of their lead stallion when he hears the news about their match can feel the sudden buffer between themself and someone who otherwise would not block them out. Ratchet and Rasoio couldn't help directing their attention for a moment to Kentucky before closing him out of their minds while they absorbed the information about what had happened to Nicky.

He felt the two stallions touch his mind, radiating shock and fear and then disappear. He exercised self-control and didn't run to them. He had seen this sort of thing, from the other side, from the perspective of the ones consulting to protect the broken half.

He cleaned his stall. Tidied up the clothes, took out the trash, scrubbed the sink. He was sweeping when their minds appeared outside his door. They had been quite awhile. It must have taken them a lot of comforting to disperse the pain from the news.

He opened the door before either human could knock.

Even prepared, when it became real, he gave a little gasp. [Please, not Nicky,] He whispered.

Rasoio wrapped his arms around him. [He's still running, loved one. We're going to take you there.]

Kentucky clung to Rasoio and looked up at the much taller stallion. [He's not coming home, is he, Razor?]

[No, Homeland, not this time.]

[And I'm not, either...] He said, sadly, looking around the stall. He waved his hands helplessly at all the things.

[Don't worry about the things. Your brothers will know what to do. We'll get what you need,] Ratchet said. His lips tightened and he looked at Ricky, who nodded at Kentucky.

[Rasoio's going to help you sleep. You'll need all the energy you can get. You two go to our stall, while we pack,] Valentino told him.

Kentucky squeezed Valentino's hand. [You're coming with me, aren't you?]

He nodded. [Of course I am. We go together.]

Kentucky looked back at Ratchet. [I don't need any of the comfort items.] He touched the handkerchief he wore around his neck. [Just this. I'd rather go to sleep here, where Nicky was.]

He held Rasoio's hand.

The others filed out of the room. He could feel Ratchet outside the door, burning off their agony as fast as he could. He touched his mind. 'You're going to need help, stallion, you should call the Reds and Blues.'

'Don't tell me what to do, Homeland,' Ratchet sent with sorrowful teasing and deep, deep fondness. 'You focus on what you need to do, now.'

Kentucky sent the biggest wave of love. 'Make them feel it for me.'

He looked at Rasoio. A huge portion of what Ratchet was out there burning was coming directly off the lead stallion. He lead the older stallion to Nicky's bed and they stretched out, face to face. [I'm going to miss you, Razor. I'm going to miss racing with you. I always thought we'd race again.]

Rasoio's face twisted and he nodded. [Do you remember your rookie year? Our first race against each other?]

Kentucky laughed. He could feel Rasoio inside his mind, easing the pain, easing the fear. [Break and Casey were so sure he would be there with you first, and then there I was, and Break was still in Moto2.]

[Rasoio and Kentucky, the first Riders on the grid, first Champions. I was so proud of you.]

[Do you remember Le Mans? When it was raining and you stopped the race?]

[You weren't sure you were safe. I couldn't risk you.] Rasoio ran a hand across Kentucky's shoulder.

[I thought about that the day I won. I wondered if you gave me that win.] He squeezed Rasoio's bicep, feeling warm cozyness in his muscles. He didn't want to sleep, but they were going to the hospital. Going to Nicky. He couldn't afford any tiredness.

Rasoio smirked. [Did you ever figure it out?]

[Yes, I realized you might have let me beat you, just because you're a sentimental old stallion, but you never would have let Colin walk on you like that.] Kentucky grinned.

Rasoio burst into laughter. [True, best friend or not, you don't LET a human win. You make them pry it...you make them earn it. You earned your first win, and you earned your Championship.]

They were both still. Kentucky's eyes fluttered closed a few times.

Rasoio blinked back tears and booped Kentucky's nose. He was already asleep.

\--

The first touch Kentucky felt when he woke was Rasoio, drowning everything out, even his connection to Nicky. [Don't panic,] Rasoio told him. [He's still running, but he's very medicated. You're going to have to go a long way in to find him. Your brothers are here.]

Kentucky sat up and Rasoio backed away. He wasn't in a crate, which was a weird sensation, he was on a stretcher Rasoio and Valentino had carried him into the room on. Rasoio's connection reduced in intensity, allowing him to feel a sort of fuzzy awareness of Nicky and, closer, unrestricted, Tommy Gun and Raliegh. He reached out to his brothers, just long enough to share their strength. They were both very, very sad. They were Kentucky's brothers, and their matches were Nicky's brothers. It was a hard day for their family.

He sat up. He was in Nicky's hospital room. Nicky was taped up with tubes. Kentucky wanted to ask Rasoio what they were, but he wouldn't understand the explanations.

[Be careful not to disconnect anything,] Rasoio told him, as everyone backed out of the room.

Kentucky let out a breath. 'Nicky.'

There was no response. He sent into their connection, anyway.

He climbed up on the bed, careful of the wires and tubes and pressed himself full length against Nicky. Barely touching where he could feel the wounds on his beloved self's body. He reached into Nicky's mind and channeled the pain into where Ratchet was waiting. It was taken away and gotten rid of, without either Kentucky or Nicky having to worry about it.

The drugs wouldn't be so easy to take care of.

Stupid humans

Stupid damned humans and their stupid, stupid misunderstanding.

[Why didn't you know to check for danger?] He asked Nicky.

He sobbed.

He reached inside his match's mind, deep, deeper than the medication, to where Nicky really lived.

He closed his eyes in his body and opened them in the place in Nicky's heart.

Inside his own mind, Nicky was sitting on the ground with his arms around his knees. He looked up at Kentucky. 'Hey, I'm glad to see you. I'd give you a hug, but my ribs hurt.'

Kentucky sat beside him. 'Yeah. I have an idea. You can come be with me, in my body, my ribs don't hurt,' He held his hand out.

Nicky clenched his arms tighter around his knees. 'I got hit by a car, Kentucky.'

'I know.'

'If I go with you...' He looked up, licked his lips. He knew if he let Kentucky take his mind this time, there would be nowhere to come back to.

Kentucky nodded. 'Come be with me. I love you. I'll take care of you. You can be with me, always. We'll be one Racing Rider.'

Nicky looked at him for a long time. Then he laughed quietly. 'We've always been one Racing Rider.' He reached out and put his hand in Kentucky's.

You're never going to hurt again, Nicky.

Kentucky cuddled Nicky's mind close and lifted it out of the dying body. He brought Nicky into his own mind, expanding the familiar pathways, making a place for him, making them part of each other like they'd never been.

They spent a long time together like that, like they used to.

Finally, Kentucky told Nicky, 'Our family is here,' They want to see you.

'Us, they want to see us.' Nicky told him, and it was Nicky who opened Kentucky's eyes. He sat up, uncertainly and, carefully avoiding the tubes, and carefully avoiding catching sight of the empty body on the bed, he stood and went out.

Ratchet was standing next to the door. Nicky nodded at him and a look of subtle relief crossed his features as he stopped channeling pain from a body which was no longer occupied.

He touched Kentucky's hand, but that was all.

They walked into the waiting room.

Kentucky watched Nicky with his family. He sent to his own brothers while Nicky spoke to their matches. Nicky couldn't speak in Kentucky's body, anymore than Kentucky could, but Tommy and Roger both gestured fluently after nearly as many years matched.

They couldn't leave the hospital. There were too many unknowns about a Racer taking in his match. They had the advantage of the best Doctor of all the Trainers, and Valentino and Rasoio called in every other Trainer with medical knowledge and anyone who had dealt with a similar situation, but Nicky and Kentucky didn't want to worry about the medicide. They wanted to spend time together, and with their family.

The hospital also had resources. At half past 1am, Kentucky was getting tired. His grip on Nicky loosened, and Nicky's mind tried to jump back to it's own body. A body that was no longer there. Kentucky became alert immediately and snatched him back to safety. Then they opened the first Redbull.

It wasn't anyone's fault. It was natural for a mind to be in it's own body, and the exchange wasn't meant to last beyond a Racer's conscious control. Kentucky had hoped for more time, but the Redbull was only the first measure.

After that, the others slept in shifts.

Kentucky lost track of how many times the Riders feeding energy into his grasp on Nicky changed. All the Riders he'd grown up with, all his teammates, his friends, his brothers. Duende, Break, Justice. He looked up at one point and realized Alondra and Fernando were sitting across the hospital cafeteria. Alondra's Multiple World Champion mind firmly encasing Kentucky's. Keeping his Nicky safe.

Keeping vigil.

It was while the guard changed that Nicky tried to jump the second time. He clung to Kentucky after that, scared of the windswept emptyness outside.

Kentucky was scared, too.

That was when Rasoio brought the needle.

It hurt, and Kentucky was terrified of it, but for Nicky he would endure as many more shots as it took.

Then, after he pulled Nicky back, after 5 days of no sleep and an increasingly sick feeling from the poisons in the needles that were keeping them awake, Nicky wasn't clinging to him anymore. Nicky was with him, without the fear.

When no one was watching, they curled up on the couch in the waiting room. They rested their head on their hand and watched their family, together, and let their eyes drift closed.

Nicky and Kentucky held hands and jumped.  Away into the emptyness.

\--

Rasoio had been the one feeding Kentucky's strength when he felt their determination change. When he felt them let themselves rest, let themselve go to peace. He sat silently for a long time after they left. Then he stood, crossed the room and eased their body down onto the couch.

He ignored the chaos that broke out behind him. He brushed his fingers through their hair.

[Rest, now, Champion. You've earned your rest.]


End file.
